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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide
The pseudo - scientific jargon late in the story lacks any of the wonder it may have once held and takes up too much space in a short novel, but the story itself is an entertaining, if somewhat predictable, read. I was hooked from the beginning and enjoyed damn near every page right up to the end.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an okay read for me—solid concept, but it didn’t quite hit the mark. The idea of how invisibility works is neat - I like how Wells thought it through, how with the book's logic it would be mostly inconvenient. I enjoyed when characters began to uncover the mystery of it at the inn in the beginning, and how they chose to deal with his poor personality.
There was plenty of tension throughout the book between understanding that the Invisible Man is a bad person and almost feeling sorry for him, but for me, he never quite crossed into being pitiable. That being said, the townspeople were just as frustrating as the Invisible Man at times, so it wasn't a satisfying balance. Even when they ganged up on him, it was more annoying than cathartic. The build-up action toward the end had some good moments, but the ending itself left me a bit underwhelmed.
I’m glad I read it—it’s interesting and has its highlights, and I appreciate it. I understand that it's meant to be a story about isolation, power, and how society reacts to outsiders. I feel it achieved this, but it wasn't delivered in a way that was particularly enjoyable to me, or as impactful as The Time Machine.
There was plenty of tension throughout the book between understanding that the Invisible Man is a bad person and almost feeling sorry for him, but for me, he never quite crossed into being pitiable. That being said, the townspeople were just as frustrating as the Invisible Man at times, so it wasn't a satisfying balance. Even when they ganged up on him, it was more annoying than cathartic. The build-up action toward the end had some good moments, but the ending itself left me a bit underwhelmed.
I’m glad I read it—it’s interesting and has its highlights, and I appreciate it. I understand that it's meant to be a story about isolation, power, and how society reacts to outsiders. I feel it achieved this, but it wasn't delivered in a way that was particularly enjoyable to me, or as impactful as The Time Machine.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I was surprised to see what a horrid being the invisible man was created as, right from the start. Wells creates a portrait of a person for whom it is a challenge to feel any pity, rather than the story of tragedy as a good man goes wrong and goes bad as a result.
I really liked this story. It’s a bit dry at the start, but it really picks up once you get to know the Invisible Man and hear from his perspective.
The story gets steadily darker as it progresses, and I really liked that the stakes get higher and higher until the end. For that reason, I’m willing to forgive a lot of the dullness at the start.
Wells’s writing is clear and precise, so despite its age, the text is very accessible and feels quite recent. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes The War of the Worlds, and to anyone who has ever said they’d choose invisibility if they could pick their own superpower.
I liked this more than The Time Machine, and less than The War of the Worlds. I should also note that The War of the Worlds has by far the most violence and destruction of the three books, and The Time Machine has the least.
The story gets steadily darker as it progresses, and I really liked that the stakes get higher and higher until the end. For that reason, I’m willing to forgive a lot of the dullness at the start.
Wells’s writing is clear and precise, so despite its age, the text is very accessible and feels quite recent. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes The War of the Worlds, and to anyone who has ever said they’d choose invisibility if they could pick their own superpower.
I liked this more than The Time Machine, and less than The War of the Worlds. I should also note that The War of the Worlds has by far the most violence and destruction of the three books, and The Time Machine has the least.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Some points go to Wells for the creativity of this for its time, but reading it in this day and age is not my idea of enjoyable. This is one of those precursor/early sci fi novels where the authors found success by thinking up and writing about any science related unusual idea that not one had ever told a story about before. Which is cool to think about. However, there's not kuch else to the story. So, it's a bit boring. The plot is trodding and the characters aren't interesting or likeable nor are you inclined to root for any of them. There's just not much else to engage you beyond, "What is a mad scientist found a way to become invisible? Here's what might happen. The end."
So I geuss only read this if that sounds interesting to you, or if you know you like the early almost sci fi works.
So I geuss only read this if that sounds interesting to you, or if you know you like the early almost sci fi works.
It's hard to rate this novel because I'm reading it more than 100 years after it was written. I'm sure that when this came out it was terrifying, and thought provoking, now I instantly think: infrared. I really did enjoy the opening of the novel with the invisible man toiling away in the inn, not sure if he was going to be discovered and being generally unpleasant towards everyone, but once his secret came out the entire novel shifted for me. It became more of a classic "In which the main character goes to this town" type of book, and less of a thriller. I do love that the invisible man is a very unlikable person, and I enjoyed learning about how he became invisible, but something didn't completely click for me. It may have been the chapters of inaction, or the chapters that seemed to have the main story veering into something else entirely, either way this did not flow perfectly well for me. It's a bit hard to believe that someone so intelligent as to create a super invisibility elixir didn't think of the negative side effects of such a thing (like that fact that he would have to run around naked all the time), but then again the main character is a bit crazy, self centered, and power hungry. I'm not sure if this was a landmark at the time for it's creativity or not, but I don't know that a book about an invisible person is all that unique. I probably shouldn't be hating on the classics, so I'll stop there. I was enjoying myself for the most part in the novel, but it didn't blow me away, or strike me as anything particularly amazing. Again, it's hard to put myself in the shoes of someone reading this a hundred years ago. It's like trying to watch the Harry Potter movies from a standpoint of someone that has never read the books, I obviously can't put myself in those shoes, I can't unlearn things like infrared and Hollow Man.